1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic musical instruments, and in particular, to operational factors for musical tone control operators for electronic musical instruments.
2. Prior Art
Electronic musical instruments are conventionally known for which the designation of tone generation control parameters is carried out by various timbre and rhythm designation operators arrayed on a control panel. When operation of these operators is detected, appropriate operational parameters are subsequently provided to the pertinent circuitry for each type of timbre and automatic rhythm function. A portion of an operational control panel for a conventional electronic musical instrument is shown in FIG. 1. As can be seen in the drawing, an array of timbre switches corresponding to each of the various types of timbre control available is provided on the control panel. When the individual operating the instrument desires to activate one of the available timbre functions, the operator presses the switch displaying the desired function, whereby the appropriate timbre function is designated. The array of automatic rhythm control switches for the same electronic musical instrument is shown in FIG. 2. Similar to the designation of timbre control functions, when the operator desires to activate one of the available automatic rhythm control functions, by pressing the switch displaying the desired function, the appropriate type of rhythm control is established.
With another type of conventional electronic musical instrument, rather than an individual switch corresponding to each available timbre and rhythm control function, each switch controls a number of timbre or rhythm control functions, thus making it possible to decrease the total number of operational control switches on the control panel. With such a musical instrument a record is kept of the number of times an individual switch is pressed and a suitable timbre or rhythm control function is designated depending on the press count for a particular switch. As an example of this type of instrument in which one control switch activates a predetermined set of timbre or rhythm control functions based on the number of times the switch has been pressed, an implementation has been disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Second Publication "kokoku" No. 58-1833.
With the first above described approach to timbre and rhythm control designation, in which a separate corresponding switch is provided for each type of timbre and rhythm control function available, the large array of operational control switches necessitates a control panel with a considerably large switch mounting surface area. For the operator, such an arrangement presents the problem of searching for the switch which designates a desired function among a large array of operational control switches, thus leading to operating characteristics for the musical instrument which are less than optimal. With the type of instrument in which one control switch activates a predetermined set of timbre or rhythm control functions depending on the number of times the switch has been pressed, for an instrument having a large number of available timbre and rhythm control functions, it often becomes necessary to press a particular switch some large number of times in order to select a desired function, thus requiring significant time. This is particularly troublesome when the operator wishes to select or change a function in the midst of a performance.